Brass Tacks on Smart Policy: The Boston Red Sox have finally come to their senses and recently formally instituted a new policy that bans all t-shirts that feature the 1990's paranoid inferiority complex phrase "Yankees Suck" (which does more to promote the team from New York and does nothing to support Boston) and/or related anti-Yankees slogans from Fenway Park. Ticket holders wearing the embarassing shirts are now asked to turn the low-rent vulgar t's inside out or change them before entering the gates at Fenway. Point: Lucchino. No decision has been made regarding the banning of any shirts that have the word "Curse" printed on them, which of course promotes some sort of curse no matter what it says in front of the "C" word. Read Hench's Yankees Suck? No Such Luck.

"It makes us look, as a community, like idiots." -- Bill Burt, WEEI's The Big Show on the YS shirt wearing fandom

"Maybe they finally realized that after 86 years of winning nothing and countless wild cards later that THEY are in fact the team that sucks and not the Yankees?" -- Dooley Womack, nyyfans.com

"I've stated many times that there is ZERO hatred on the field between these two teams (Red Sox-Yankees), for the most part, zero. Probably as much respect as anything... The hatred part is in the stands and in the media, they need that sorta stuff for material, and they make it into their own little story often times. What they don't make up, fans seem to give them willingly." -- Curt Schilling

CLEMENS WINDOW CLOSED

Bob Lobel reports on UPN-38 that the window for the Red Sox obtaining Roger Clemens is now shut.

Sox had 48 hours to seal the deal.

Sox Would Not Give Up Youk

Roger Clemens: "It's not a big deal. It's not going to happen anyway. They just did it to block me from going to the Yankees."

(Sorry Roger but it wasn't about the Yankees, the Red Sox wanted to bring you back to Boston)

SOX FUELINGROCKET RETURN

Roger That.

Think Responsibly?

More Bud for Werner and Company

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig's term as baseball commissioner was extended for three years through 2009 in a unanimous vote by owners today.

CBS-4's Bob Lobel reports that the Red Sox are actively working with the Houston Astros on a deal that would bring Roger Clemens back to Boston for the remainder of the 2004 season. "Anything's possible" said Lobel when he confirmed that the Sox and Astros are trying to find the right mix of prospects that would bring the former Sox great back home for the stretch run. Waiver wire deals can be made until August 31, the deadline for adding to the club's playoff roster.

Initial Rocket Re-entry Rejected

Lupica Says Sox Tried to Rope in Roger on Waiver Wire: "Oh, and by the way, the Red Sox have Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez. So in a season when the Yankees have no No. 1 starter, the Red Sox, way back there, have two. Maybe that is why the Yankees watched with more than a passing interest a few weeks ago when Roger Clemens was put on waivers by the Astros, the way so many players are at this time of year, watched Clemens go through the system until the Red Sox put in a claim on him. At which point the Astros pulled him back."

Waiver Wire Rules

"If a player is claimed, but only by one team, the player can be traded only to the team that claims him. ...If a deal can't be worked out or the team doesn't want to trade that player, he can be pulled back off waivers once in August. If he is placed on waivers again before September, he can't be recalled a second time." -- Jayson Stark, ESPN.com

The “Curt’s Pitch
for ALS” program is a joint effort by Curt and Shonda Schilling and The
ALS Association Mass Chapter to strike out Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

For the fourth consecutive year, SHADE Foundation of America will be represented at the Boston Marathon by a team raising funds for SHADE. SHADE is currently seeking marathon runners to join the team . For more information on running with Shonda Schilling on SHADE’s team or sponsoring runners, please visit SHADE's marathon page here.The SHADE Foundation thanks Red Sox Nation for joining in their fight to save future generations from melanoma.